The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-03-23
The Insane Folly of a Turk
ish Sultan.


From an article by NJ. Emile Jullard,
in the March Cosmopolitan, on Life
Beneath the Crescent" we clip the fol-
lowing example of the insane eXtrava-
gance of Turkish sultans: " 1t will be
remembered that Abdul Aziz was in
vited by the Emperor Napoleon Ill. to
visit the Exposition Universelle in
1867. The sultan wished very much to
accept, but it was necessary to know
whether the canons of Islam would
permit it. The ulemas and the doctors
of the Koran assembled under the
presidency of Sheik-ul- Islam, and after
mature deiberation they decided that
Mohammed would not take offence at
this journey to foreign country, pro-
vided the sultan placed in his shoes
some dirt from Constantinople, so that
he might not walk upon anything eX-
cept Ottoman soil. Abdul Aziz then
departed with his territory under his
feet, which had to accompany him
everywhere he went. After France
he visited England. True Turk that
he was, the sultan did not deign to be
astonished at anything. Nevertheless,
he at heart admired very much the
Crystal Palace in London, but he did
not allow his admiration to be manifest;
but on returning home he ordered that
there be constructed, on the little hill
that overlooks Tcheragan, an Orangery
like the famous British edifice. From
England were brought materials, archi-
tects, masOns and GLACIERS, who worked
day and night, for his highness had it
made known that he was in hurry,
and soon the promenaders on the Bos-
phorus saw glistening in the sun the
fac-simile, the counterpart, of the
Crystal Palace. Twenty-Five millions
of francs Give million dollars) were
sunk in this sultanesque whim. When
the edifice was completed, Abdul Aziz,
followed by his staff in lace and Jewels,
went to visit it officially. He expressed
his satisfaction by a tchoh jie very
good), which was soon translated into
decorations for the architects and into
gratuties for the workmen. A few
weeks later the Crystal Palace no longer
existed. Eight months had been re-
quired to build it; only five days were
required to destroy it. 1t is true that
the demolition cost only forty thousand
francs, which is an enormous saving
upon the cost of construction. What
AdN AdDDCICu' "A NClN
A caprice had reared the fairy palace
costing five millions of dollars; another
caprice had RACED it. 1t seems that all
this glass reflected the light in dis
agreeable manner into the apartments
of the sultan, and that this affected his
eyes. So one fine morning his majesty
said: " Have that torn down for me-"
And it was torn down. On seeing this
III 4
their opinion only by a mdchalldh! gen.
tie and resigned. The rajahs and Eu-
ropeans whispered to one another:
g He is a fool" But the sultan had
acquired a taste for destroying things.
For few days he had seen squads of
men break millions of panes of glass,
take down immense frame-works of
iron; and all this, it appears, had
amused him good deal, for he spoke
of nothing less than the complete de-
struction of the Tcheragan Palace, the
building and the furnishing of which
had required six years of incessant
labor and cost sums that would indeed
embarrass one to figure, for they have
never been exactly determined. This
time the grand vizier became alarmed
at this new caprice; but not daring TO
make TO MS master the most distant
allusion to the subject, he bethought
himself to speak to the English am
bassador, Sir Elliot, and to have him
make an attempt to save the magnif
cent palace. Sir Elliot sought an
audience under some pretext or other,
and obtained it without trouble. In
the course of the conversation the am
bassador began adroitly to eulogize the
works accomplished during the reign
of Abdul Aziz; he praised the fleet, the
barracks, the Krupp guns, all these i'm
perial hobbies, but especially the adj
mirable Tcheragan Palace, in which all
Europe was interested, and which was
destined, without the slightest doubt, to
immortalize the name of the sultan
that had had it built, and to become the
admiration of the centuries to come.
Although a sultan, Abdul Aziz was
none the less human. He greatly
relished the honey coming from cause
little suspected, and not only was the
palace saved, but the sultan, DESTROYS
of increasing the glory predicted by the
English ambassador, had it embellished
to still greater extent. But he did
not make it his favorite, and he never
lived in it any more"